Epicor Success Story
The Baker Company
The Baker Company finds new-found productivity,
ease-of-use, and extensibility with Epicor ERP
Company Facts
• Location: Sanford, ME
• Industry: Medical device—laboratory equipment
• Web site: www.bakerco.com
“We’re able to process quotes faster, configure
units faster, get orders into the system quicker,
and with better visibility on the shop floor
with MES.”
Kevin Parks, materials manager | The Baker Company
Success Highlights
Challenges and Opportunities
• Sought an ERP platform designed for ease
of integration with today’s new technologies
and systems
• Needed strong product configurator and
manufacturing ERP capabilities to support
its high volume make-to-order production
environment
Solution
• Epicor® ERP
Benefits
• Improved productivity, collaboration, security
and system integrity
• Improved functionality and easy-to-use user
interface offers immediate access to data
• Easier satisfaction of RoHS compliance
requirements
• Seamless integration with third-party
software for sales tax, shipping, document
management and CAD/CAM design
For more than 60 years, The Baker Company, Inc., has helped advance science,
discovery and clinical care by pioneering innovative solutions for air containment,
contamination control and controlled environments. Baker manufactures biological
safety cabinets, clean benches, fume hoods, and pharmacy isolators providing
unparalleled user and product protection for a variety of applications, ranging from
pipetting to drug manufacturing to the handling of dangerous pathogens such as
Anthrax.
Baker had used the Epicor DataFlo™ ERP solution to support its high volume maketo-order production environment. But after 15 years, the company aspired to migrate
to an ERP solution with an architecture designed for ease of integration with today’s
new technologies and systems. “We were really intrigued by the vision of Epicor ERP,”
said Kevin Parks, materials manager at The Baker Company.
As one might envision, moving to a new ERP solution from an existing solution 15
years in use, can be a bit daunting. However, with assistance from EpiCenter, an
Epicor services partner and member of the Epicor Inspired Partner Network, Baker
was able to streamline its deployment and usher in a whole new world of capabilities
to help the company gain new efficiencies and be poised for future growth.
Following its migration to Epicor ERP, virtually all departments are using the
system—from customer service for order entry to sales and marketing to IT, finance,
purchasing, production floor personnel and engineering; even senior executives find
value in the system’s dashboard reporting capabilities.
Success Story – The Baker Company
Leveraging a broad range of functionality
Epicor modules used most regularly include MRP for planning, and
Quality and Engineering. And since Baker offers its customers the
choice of more than a dozen different product families and multiple
variations of those products, the company relies heavily on the Epicor
product configurator—key for make-to-order businesses.
Baker is also using the RoHS compliance module, which offers
support with international trade standards around the restriction of
the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic
equipment (RoHS). With the module, manufacturers can configure
the Epicor ERP substance restrictions and run a RoHS Part Compliance
process to ensure all changes to engineered and purchased products
are validated compliant with the directive.
MES functionality and barcode scanning integration are used for
warehouse and shop floor operations. As well, Baker has gained
additional value through solutions such as Epicor InsiteShip shipping
software and doclink™ by Altec for document management.
Immediate benefits experienced
Baker realized immediate benefits after implementation, including
overall improved ease-of-use and productivity. “We’re able to process
quotes faster, configure units faster, get orders into the system
quicker, and with better visibility on the shop floor with MES—this is
all of benefit to the business,” said Parks.
“We’ve seen a marked improvement in our ability to respond to
customer inquiries faster—that’s a huge benefit. The ‘right click open
with’ feature was a quantum leap of efficiency as far as running the
business is concerned,” he said, referring to users’ ability to access
other related forms and drill down to find necessary information from
any dashboard. “Having accurate information at hand via reports and
dashboards there when you need them has really helped us answer
important day-to-day operational questions and have our finger on
the pulse of the business.”
As well, the Epicor ERP solution’s enforcement of role-based security
access has been extremely valuable to Baker to establish defined
user tables and control user input of data. “Now, system alerts are
generated and distributed whenever changes are made, ensuring
system integrity and validation,” said Parks.
But from his perspective, the ultimate form of return on investment is
that the company is now able to grow and accomplish more without
the need for additional staffing.
Quantifying value to the organization
When asked about the value of Epicor ERP, Parks said, “The system
is a very good value for the dollar, for a midmarket system. I’ve used
Oracle, SAP, and other larger ERP solutions—and my view is you will
never use everything you’re paying for. With Epicor ERP, the system
can be as sophisticated or as simplistic as you need it to be, and with
third party modules, the system is really extensible. The system is
capable of doing much more than we know, which is why we find
tremendous value in the Epicor Insights annual user conference,
where we can learn how other manufacturers are using the system.”
The value Baker has gained from its Epicor ERP deployment can be
credited in part to its strong working relationship with consulting
firm and systems integrator EpiCenter. The firm has an unrivaled ERP
implementation track record, forged through its exceptional customer
relationships.
“EpiCenter has been very good to us and was instrumental in
getting us up and running,” Parks said. “Our project manager, Jeff
Glaze, (who was formerly at an Epicor customer site and president
of the Epicor user group) really understood the product, with strong
technical and hands-on working knowledge of the solution and close
ties with Epicor.“
“EpiCenter has been very good to us and was instrumental
in getting us up and running. Our project manager...really
understood the product, with strong technical and hands-on
working knowledge of the solution and close ties with Epicor.”
Kevin Parks, materials manager
Success Story – The Baker Company
“We continue to consult with them regularly for ongoing training,”
said Parks. “They have expert resources in all aspects of the system—
finance, materials management, etc. Most recently, they helped us
with setting up subcontracting operations on a job. They helped
us understand how to capture all the costs, etc., and walked us
through the process. They have always met our expectations and are
extremely responsive to our needs.”
“We try to ensure our customer’s success by doing ‘whatever it
takes,’” said Jeff Glaze, president, EpiCenter. “In the case of Baker, we
had one of our staff serve as the company’s temporary IT manager,
and assisted the company in recruiting and training a new IT resource
—all during the month of go live.”
About Epicor
Epicor Software Corporation is a global leader delivering business
software solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, retail, and
service industries. With more than 40 years of experience, Epicor
has more than 20,000 customers in over 150 countries. Epicor
solutions enable companies to drive increased efficiency and
improve profitability. With a history of innovation, industry expertise
and passion for excellence, Epicor inspires customers to build
lasting competitive advantage. Epicor provides the single point of
accountability that local, regional, and global businesses demand. For
more information, visit www.epicor.com.
On working with Epicor, Glaze commented, “Epicor ERP has mature
modules that work together seamlessly, allowing support for
manufacturing of standard subassemblies, as well as custom final
assembly operations, as is needed with a mixed mode manufacturer
such as Baker. One of the significant business outcomes of the
implementation was a streamlining of production and reduction of
delivery time from 8 weeks to only 2 weeks. In addition to reducing
delivery times, we were also able to reduce Baker’s inventory levels.”
“The Epicor Service Oriented Architecture allows us to seamlessly
configure the logic of the system without touching source code. This
has enabled Baker to upgrade to the latest versions of Epicor ERP
without any impact to some special routines we customized to meet
their specific business needs,” he said.
“It’s always a scary proposition when migrating to a new ERP system,
but it’s important to do so to give your people the right tools to
continue to improve your operations,” said Parks. “We knew we were
on the right track when 6 months to a year down the road everyone
said, ‘I like the new system better’—that’s what we were looking for.”
Contact us for more information
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